MEDFACTS TUESDAY

Very low cholesterol levels are associated with violence. According to Golomb and colleagues in their study of 79,777 patients, violent criminals had a much lower level of cholesterol than non-violent individuals. Low cholesterol is also associated with higher rates of suicide. In a study of monkeys, low cholesterol was also linked to aggressive behaviors.

Drugs

Some drugs that treat restless leg syndrome have a side effect of compulsive gambling. Dopaminergic agents that treat a variety of conditions, including restless leg syndrome, can cause otherwise ordinary people to become gambling addicts. Physicians do not always warn patients about this potential side effect, and patients and their families do not associate it with drug therapy. If you take any new medications, read the label for potential side effects. Gambling may be one of them! No one clearly understands why this happens.

BRAIN

Your brain sees the world upside down. When the rods and cones of your retina send an image to the brain—say you’re looking at a tree—the image that gets transmitted to the brain is upside down. The brain automatically rotates the image in its visual cortex. Babies learn to do this early on. It’s so automatic, you do not know you’re doing it.

Men & Women

There are many differences between men and women that we don’t entirely understand. For instance, women have smaller-diameter coronary arteries surrounding the exterior of their heart in relation to the size of the heart; men have larger-diameter arteries. If a female heart was transplanted into a male patient, the arteries over time would grow to be the larger-diameter type. Men also have larger-diameter strands of hair. Women blink about twice as much as men do and have a keener sense of smell. Men burn fat more quickly (about 50 calories a day more).

Nails

The fingernails on the longest fingers grow faster than the fingernails on the shortest fingers. Nobody knows why. The fastest-growing fingernail you have is the middle finger of your dominant hand.

Heart Attacks

Heart attacks occur more often on Monday than any other day of the week. This finding comes from a European 10-year study which found Monday’s heart attack death toll is 20% higher than other days of the week. The reasons are not clear, but some people consider it’s the stress of work-reentry that causes the attacks.

You Cannot Tickle Yourself

You cannot tickle yourself.
There have been some lame explanations for this, stating that since your brain knows you’re tickling yourself, it does not respond the same way. Since it is possible to pinch yourself, that argument does not hold up.

The medical mystery is that even the most ticklish person cannot tickle himself.

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